Judge Threatens To Remove Donald Trump From Courtroom During E. Jean Carroll Damages Trial

Ted Johnson
·3 min read
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UPDATED: As he bounces from the campaign trail to courtroom, former President Donald Trump on Wednesday got a rebuke from a Manhattan federal judge for not obeying admonishments to keep quiet.

Trump has been attending a civil trial in Manhattan, where a jury will decide on damages after Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation last year. His accuser, writer E. Jean Carroll, has been testifying today that Trump ruined her reputation. She sued him after he denied that he ever sexually abused her.

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According to the Associated Press, Carroll’s attorneys complained that Trump could still be heard making remarks to his attorneys, including those calling the proceedings a “witch hunt” and “con job.”

As U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan warned Trump that he could be removed, Trump said back to him, “I would love it,” per the AP. Cameras and audio were barred from the proceedings.

Carroll said, “I know you would like it. You just can’t control yourself in this circumstance, apparently.”

“You can’t either,” Trump said.

The trial is over how much more in damages, if any, that Trump must pay over statements he made about Carroll while he was president. The trial last year concerned the sexual abuse allegation and post-presidency remarks. Carroll is seeking $10 million in additional damages, on top of the $5 million a jury awarded last May.

Trump has denied knowing Carroll, and has continued to do so at campaign rallies and on social media.

At one moment during today’s proceedings, Trump also slammed his hand down on the defense table, after Kaplan again declined a request that Thursday’s proceedings be sidelined so that he could attend the funeral of his mother in law, per the AP.

Trump wrote on Truth Social, “I feel an obligation to be at every moment of this ridiculous trial because we have a seething and hostile Clinton-appointed Judge, Lewis Kaplan, who suffers from a major case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Trump continued to tail against Carroll after today’s proceedings ended. Speaking to reporters in front of a campaign-style background of a row of flags, Trump complained about the judge and claimed that former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley was recruiting Democrats to vote in the New Hampshire primary.

CNN carried Trump’s remarks, followed by a fact-check, a day after Trump said the network and NBC should have “their licenses or whatever” taken away for not airing his caucus-night speech on Monday. CNN carried about ten minutes of Trump’s speech before cutting away, while MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow told viewers that the decision to not go to Trump’s speech live was “not out of spite. It is not a decision that we relish. It is a decision that we regularly revisit…but there is a cost to us as a news organization of knowingly broadcasting untrue things. That is a fundamental truth of our business.”

CNN and MSNBC are not licensed by the federal government, nor are any of the broadcast networks. Individual broadcast stations are licensed by the FCC for their use of the public airwaves, but the agency, in deciding whether to grant or renew a license, generally does not consider editorial news decisions.

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